October 24, 2011

I finished Neal Stephenson’s 1,042 page Reamde: A Novel
. Instead of starting something else, I started in on some Scientology blogs. Well, anti-Scientology blogs actually. So many parallels between the FLDS and Scientology scene. The blogs are similar as well. The big blog on the FLDS story gets hundreds of comments on most of its posts as regular readers trade information and theories. The anti-Scientology blogs are the same, like Mark Rathbun’s, http://markrathbun.wordpress.com/. Like the FLDS, many who have left Scientology have become vocal in telling their stories. The most interesting of these are former leaders of Scientology, some who were in high positions and were complicit in many of the actions they now decry. It’s a fascinating thing to have someone turn. If they knew about and/or participated in the bad acts they now decry, how soon are they embraced as “good guys?” It’s something that would make a great story, FLDS-wise. Haven’t read it yet. Another thing that sucked me in last night is something I wish we had done with the FLDS story. The Village Voice ran a series on their Runnin Scared blog listing the Top 25 People Crippling Scientology. The series gives you a great insight into who is who in the Scientology debate, both for and against. Of course, it’s written in a heavily biased tone. It would be a fun exercise to write a list like that about the FLDS, in a more objective manner. Get into the characters. The people who are the story. Or the issues that are ongoing. You could easily do the Top 25 ongoing legal actions in the FLDS story. Maybe I’ll do it myself. Why wait? The phone certainly ain’t ringing. .:. And make sure you check out this one… #19 on the list of people crippling Scientology… The Squirrel Busters. They’re camped out in front of Rathbun’s home, sending a message…

That was in April. Now, in late August, the Squirrel Busters are still there, sitting outside Rathbun’s house every day in a golf cart, filming him and filming themselves, hoping to get a rise out of Rathbun or goad him into assaulting them.